Weather and Traffic

Holiday rain to mostly target North Florida; winter arrives

Santa better make sure his sleigh is equipped with pontoons when he arrives in North Florida Wednesday night.

Rainfall projections continue to get bumped up north of Tampa, with a new forecast of 4.3 inches for Florida’s Big Bend area through Wednesday. Palm Beach stays mostly dry during the period, and forecasters at the National Weather Service in Miami say precipitation amounts in South Florida are looking relatively light.

Even looking at seven-day totals, it appears that Palm Beach will be lucky to get a quarter of an inch of rain toward the end of the week — not making much of a dent in December’s 1.74-inch precipitation deficit.

Forecasters said in their morning discussion that air patterns have shifted north, which means temperatures won’t be quite as cold on Christmas Day as had been originally forecast. A sunny high on Thursday of 73 is in the forecast for Palm Beach, with a projected low Thursday night/ Friday morning of around 60. The reason is that a ridge of high pressure in the Caribbean looks like it will remain stronger than expected, keeping the worst of the weather out of South Florida.

But the cold front is still expected to pass through late Christmas Eve, delivering a few showers and much drier air for the holiday weekend. Drenching rains won’t be too far away, according to NOAA’s Weather Prediction Center, which shows more than 5 inches of rain falling north of Tampa into next weekend.

Meanwhile, warmer-than-average temperatures should stick around through Wednesday, forecasters say. Interestingly, highs have been in the upper 70s to near 80 for the past seven days, but mornings have remained stubbornly chilly. Palm Beach International Airport hasn’t had a low above 60 degrees since Dec. 7 — two weeks ago, and as a result, overall temperatures were below normal 12 days in a row, a string that finally ended Saturday.

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The Tropic of Capricorn is marked on a highway in western Australia. (Image credit: Wikimedia Commons)

MAGICAL MOMENT: Monday is the first full day of winter, but it will be a Florida-style event with a high near 80 degrees and a balmy low around 71.

The 2014 winter solstice arrived Sunday just in time for dinner at 6:03 p.m. EST, marking the official start of the astronomical winter season and the sun’s trip to the Tropic of Capricorn in the southern Hemisphere.

Winter will stick around until March 20 at 12:57 EDT — the vernal equinox.

The sun doesn’t begin to rise earlier in the morning, though, until Jan. 20, when the sun will come up at 7:09 a.m. But sunset continues to get later as the year ends. By Jan. 20, sunset in Palm Beach will be at 5:54 p.m.